Senators should stand for America

As a Republican who served for six years as staff in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, I am appalled at the prospect so proudly boasted by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., of a biased, complicit and nakedly arbitrary “trial” in the current impeachment proceedings. What has changed in our politics to allow such rhetoric?

Of course, I served at a time when patriotism was treasured, and lobbyists had not yet benefited from the Supreme Court decision that placed no limit on the amount of money that could be legally used to ensure a candidate’s success. This decision corrupted our political system, requiring candidates to honor only their benefactors to avoid extinction.

This outcome will be on full display as the Senate’s votes serve to endorse the president’s unconscionable behavior.

Despite that 43% of voters agree that Donald Trump could “shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue and get away with it,” I wonder how our flag will look to them after a historic failure of statesmanship where witnesses and documents already blocked from the House are further blocked by the Senate? Will it mark America’s retreat from greatness?

I hope not. I urge the Senate to allow witnesses and documents that can reveal now suppressed facts which, in their absence, are ironically being used as a basis for acquittal.

This behavior is un-American and portends our nation’s road to decline.

Will our senators stand for America, or set fire to the American dream? What would Sen. John Heinz do? I believe his integrity would require a vote allowing the facts to emerge, honoring our nation instead of preserving a rogue, self-centered president whose selfish needs perpetuate unprecedented damage to our country.

JOHN McCARTNEY

Brighton Heights